In recent years, the development of the so-called "personal computers" has enabled computing power to be made available to millions of people. In parallel with the development of the hardware, there has been major growth in the amount of software being written. In a computer system, the user operates the computer by first controlling it with the aid of software to be ready to operate in accordance with a desired program, and then inputting data and producing output data from the computer.
In order to input data, a variety of devices may be used, the most common of which is a keyboard. The most common output device is a visual display unit (VDU) or screen on which the results of operations within the computer may be displayed to be read (if expressed in words) and/or viewed by the user.
Other input may be fed into the commuter in known fashion. For example, most computers have one or more communications ports which can send or receive data in the form of digital signals. The data can be received, e.g., from sensor units via appropriate interface circuits, or from other computers. It is known that a very wide variety of sensors may be used, including sensors which sense human physiological parameters, for example blood pressure or electrical currents in the body (in computer-controlled electrocardiogram or electroencephalogram systems). However, up until now such uses have been mainly confined to those where the computer user has not been the same person as the person under test.
An example where such use is not confined to those where the computer user has not been the same person is shown in published International Application WO 86/01317 which discloses using galvanic skin resistance to input data into a computer, and deals: specifically with the electronics necessary to overcome the problem of the very wide range of galvanic skin resistances that may be sensed over a period of time and from one user to another.
Published International Application WO 89/02247 discloses a system whereby a computer user may monitor his or her heart activity using; a simple probe which connects to the input of the computer. A suitable program must be loaded into the computer in order to enable display or printout representative of the user's cardiac function to be effected. Published European Patent Application 0176220 also discloses using a computer to monitor a user's heart.
Published International Application WO 91/01699 discloses use of a computer and suitable sensor means to offer limited mobility and limb movement patients a means of operating a computer. U.S. Pat. No. 4,894,777 uses sensor means to detect when a computer user ceases to concentrate on the subject they should be concentrating on, and published UK Patent Specification 2079992A discloses using a sensor means and microcomputer to predict the fertility period in a woman's menstrual cycle.
In recent years it has become established that physiological conditions may be treated using so-called biofeedback techniques. By measuring an appropriate psycho-physiological parameter, for example an electrodermal activity parameter, heartbeat, brain waves or the like, and displaying that measurement to the subject undergoing treatment or, therapy, it becomes possible for the subject, when appropriately trained and motivated, to control his or her psychological and/or physiological functioning or condition so as to influence the parameter being displayed. Substantial success has been reported in a variety of areas, but success is somewhat unpredictable and some patients find the techniques difficult to follow or practice or the apparatus used forbidding- All this does not assist satisfactory therapy.
For example, biofeedback apparatus is described in U.S. Pat. Nos 4,800,893; 4,632,126; 5,253,168 and 4,354,505; British Application No 2186375A; and published International Application WO 95/02989. These apparatus each describe relating some animated image to a monitored physical condition of a user. However, it has been reported previously that psychotherapeutic treatments are often more effective in terms of improving physiological conditions if the patient undergoing treatment is taught how to visualise in a very pictorial way the physiology or anatomy of the condition in question. This can promote a better understanding of the condition and enhance the treatment process, especially in the case of physiological conditions that are known to be influenced by psychological factors
Biofeedback treatment presents information about the patient's physiological and psycho-physiological state to the patient in a form that can be understood by the patient's logical and cognitive faculty (graphs, numeric displays, etc.). This type of treatment is appropriate to certain types of patient, notably those who have the capacity to grasp such cognitive/logical information.
Visualisation treatment, in contrast, works the opposite way in that it is directed at the patient's emotional faculty. In many cases it is used in conjunction with therapeutic hypnosis. Moreover, the visualisation is done when the patient closes his eyes and visualises internally through imagination, either with or without hypnosis. For example in the treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), the hypnotherapist would encourage the patient to relax and to visualise his digestive system working in a better rhythm and the pain disappearing. But only a minority of people can be hypnotised or can visualise through imagination alone.
Nowhere in the prior art has any attempt been made to combine these radically differing methods of treatment into a single system wherein biofeedback is combined with visualisation.
Similarly, desensitisation treatments of psychological conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and phobias, work by showing the user real or simulated visual/pictorial representations of the cause of the condition such as the traumatic event or the cause of the phobia with progressively increasing duration and intensity (i.e. more traumatic or frightening) so as to progressively render the patient less anxious in the face of such negative stimuli. For example, a PTSD patient who was involved in a car accident might be shown pictures of a wrecked car and sounds of police sirens, followed by pictures of the victim and later an animation and sound of a car accident taking place.
However, such methods of desensitisation treatment impose upon the therapist the burden of assessing when the patient has made sufficient progress to move on to the next stage of the treatment process in terms of duration and intensity of the images. Moreover, such methods require the presence of a therapist to regulate the progress of the treatment because a self-treatment desensitisation program would expose the patient to the risk of being prematurely exposed to a negative stimulus before they are psychologically ready to cope with it.